Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-17
glance at the wounded, pl
pressed

other in death. Yet now the blood of
Mexico was aroused. With pale COM
pressed lips, and eyes that flashed fire,
they spurned the dead beneath their feet,
and pressed forward. The American
force began to melt at their approach,
and the artillery was surrounded with the
dead. But sweeping over the field
through death and smoke, General Lane
urged his troops to be firm; while
O'BIien, leaping from his horse, seized q
gun, ana though the balls Ieaped and
whistled around him, kept the aEtilierists
20 their guns. Now horse would plunge
and fall dead, then q ball would tear
cOmrade from his side, and sweep amid
the supporting infantry. Still the battle
went Oh, rocking and laundering in the
mountains, and flaming along the
pains like the eruption Of yOlcnaO.
Gut there was a page dark and untOrt-
innate IN this tale of glory. At this
moment, when the energies of every
man We're required to insure victory, the
Indiana regiment moved rapidly from its
station and commenced an inglOTious
retreat. Appalled, at the sight, the staff
officers gau0Ded across their paths and,
Selling The regimeutal cOlOrs, called
the troops 10 remember their country.
But the appeal was vain; e few brave
spirits disengaged themselves from the
mass. but the rest left the field and its
glory 10 be won by woTthier hands.
Inspired by this success, the MeXiCans
poured on in eXuI,inC shouts, which
drowned the hurry CT battle. Sure Of
victory. each lancer rose in mis- stiTrUps
a1d dashed down on the artillery in the
nercest haste. Yet those gallant
few were Undismayed. Ex-
hGusted with incessaut labor
and deserted by their infantry,
they bore up through danger and UpToar,
until every horse was killed or wounded,
and but few men standing here and
there told where the company had been.
Yet the stern captain refused to yield,
until MS soldiers, less il number than
the cannon, fell into confusion. Then
remountIng his wounded horse he sUIlen-
" ordered retreat. The next moment
the opposing cavalry dashed on the bat
try, and his guns were 10 It.
Lanes company was IN frequent en-
gagements and skirmishts with the guer-
rJlldS and renegade Indians during the
progress Of the war in Mexico, ia one Of
which he was shot through the leg. He
served with great honor and distinction,
having no less than five horses killed IN
der him IN different battles.
"At the conclusion Of hOsJilities," says
Rose, "Lane was q major, and retired
from the scene Of operations with u Tepu-
tatiOu.
To conclude this brief narrative Of
Lanes operations in Mexico, we take the
liberty to reproduce, from the Encyclo-
pe3ia Of the New West, an Incident in the
career Of the heroic OLD chieftain that win
be Of peculiar Interest to the Texan
reader:
cone episode in the career OF Walter
2. Lane viii em3alm MS memory forever
IN the hearts Of Texans. During the
MeNicau war, while ne was major Of Hays
regiment IF Texas rangers, under
General J. L. Wood, he was dis
patched by the latter with
small body Of men to 20 south in the
direction Of San Luis POtOsi 10 discover
ali that was possible in relation to the
movements of the Mexican army. There
were TWO roads to san Luis POtUsi-One
by M-tchuala, large town, the other by
the great hacienda of Salado, where the
seventeen Texas Mier prisoners drew
black beans, N 1913, and were shot. The
two roads We're divided by a range Of
mountains. Lane took the left handed or
eastern road, and actually penetrated to
and entered the city of MatChuala, with its
20 600 people and a garrison OF several
hundred men. He ordered and OBJ
jained dinner at q mesOn g com
promise between q hotel and wagon
Yard, announced that large American
army was near Dy and feas.ed his men to
their full. Then TemOunting he retired
across the mountain to the
other road, and struck the hacienda of
Salad0. Selling the elCalde he ordered
the resurrection of the bones of the
seventies maTtyred Texans, demanded
mules, sacks, saddles and all things
necessary to bear them away, All We're
Furnished G, aud the remains Of the dead
GUY placed in transit on mules. Lsne
tipped his beaver 20 the aICalte aid the
assembled villagers, and bore those
relics to General Taylur's head. uarteTS.
Inat sturdy h,TO deputed Captain
Qui5c bury, Texan, with an
escort H. convey them 10 Texas. They
were conveyed 10 LaGcaoge, On the Cd
oradO, and there, with eli sOlemnuy, in
tue presence II thousands, inferred on
Monument hill, overlooking the country
for miles around. Few know even 10 this
day that 10 General Walter 2. Lane Texas
IS indebted for the possession OF these
Of 8 herOism never surpassed
The names of the seventeen marUyrsd
heroes, aII being Texans, who drew the
black beans and were shot as malefaCtOrs
fGr an act of herOism perhaps unp4rral~
le,ed in history, were: James d Cooke,
. printer and lawyer from r cdmond, Va;
Robert II. Duuham, a sincere Christian
Of the Methodist church; James NJ Og-
den, g lawyer from Henry county, XIII
tuc6v; William NJ. Eastland, g member of
the Methodist CIurCh, from Tennessee,
for whom at = lateT day Eas;lGnd county
was named, by John Henry Brown; ThOn
a L. Jones. native Of Louisville, Ky;
J. NJ. Thompson, Henry Whaling, W. n.
Cowau, c. Roberts, Edward Esty, j.
Trumbull, Il II Harris, Martin Carroll
Wings printer from Vermont; z. Mahan,
J. L. Cash and James Torrey, from Col
chester, Conn, g brother CT the Thomas
TorreY mentioned in the memoir of Gen
ersl II. z. Bee, as one OF his TWO compan-
ions whose lives were Gdjudicated by g
council OF COmanches in August, l843, the
third one being Captain j. c
also g son of Connecticut,
an early Texan, now a p3ymaster in
the United States army. To this list
should be added the name of the old CAL
edonian chief of Southwest Texas, Cap
tain Even Cameron, who, though he drew
a white bean, was subsequently taken
from his chained companions while en-
route TO the City of Mexico, and
murdered as d wild beast by the order Of
Santa Anna, simply because he had been
a terror to Mexican invaders of our
frontier At the first op-